And peperoni is the translation for capsicum (or, as you say, Anaheim chiles)!!!!!

The red slices are named SALAME.

In Italian and other languages that have not changed the base words substantially, that is true. In English, the word pepperoni (two 'p's) means what we show in the picutres: a spicy beef and pork sausage. It does indeed derive from the Italian word peperoni (one 'p') for chiles (or capsicums). If you're in an English class, please use the two 'p' version of pepperoni when referring to this particular type of salami. Using the one 'p' version is currently not considered correct spelling (but if you italicize it, then you can claim you are using the italian word - but then you'd be referring to chilis...)

have you tried putting the pepperoni on first? not really a good idea for thin crust, but for pan pizza i top the shell with a layer of pepperoni, then add sauce, and then top with cheese. yes, there is more oil, but that brings some of the flavor from the sauce into the crust. it also leaves more room for toppings... like crumbled bacon, onions, and freshly diced tomatoes.

I noticed "dirtgirl" mentioned that the crust is firm or the inside is soggy - its really a compromise, unless you experiement a bit.

I am curious to hear other opinions on this, since I myself am fighting this problem.

Some partial solutions are

1) 2% milk in place of 50% of the water
2) pre-baking (obviously, but at 350deg for 4 mins)
3) adding 100% wheat gluten, in attempt to emulate store bought (yuck!) dough. The wheat glueten gives some resiliance to the dough, and it will retalliate kneading.

I think you can freeze the pizza dough at the point where it enters the pans (my mother makes pizza quite often, but not pan pizza, and freezes it in balls before rolling it out). Then if you take it out of the freezer in the morning and defrost it out of the fridge all day, it has a) defrosted and b) risen by the evening. Good if you want a quick pizza when you come home.

Thank you so much for your recipe M. Chu.
I was desperately trying to make a pizza pan by my own it was really helpful following your instructions. Everybody in my house want me to
cook another pan pizza this week-end because it had alot of success!
Merci beaucoup!

I worked for and managed Pizza Hut from 1983 to 1992. I don't have much to add in terms of ingredients, but the process is very important to make original pan Pizza. The recipe I saw posted here for Pan Pizza dough looks to be fairly close. I never needed to kneed the dough. Once the dough is put out on the table , cover it and let it set for about 5 minutes. I'm not sure abought the measurements here, but I believe 16 oz. of dough makes a 12 inch pizza. After you portion the dough roll it into a ball, spray it lightly with pam and cover for 5 minutes. While you're waiting, put about 1/8 inch of vegatable oil into a 12 inch pan. The pan depth should be around 1.5 to 2 inches deep. Now roll out the dough ball intto a circle. It should be about 1/4 inch in height once rolled. Now place the rolled out dough into the pizza pan on top of the oil. Turn the dough in the pan 1/4 turn to ensure proper oil distribution. Now spray the outer edge of the dough with apray release. Cover the pan and placein a lightly warm oven for abought 45 minutes or until the dough is very close to the cover. Once the dough has finished proofing, place the pan of dough in the fridge for about and hours. The will suspend dough proofing and firms up the dough and makes it easier to spoon the sauce on. Refrigerated pan dough is good for abought 8 hours. Pizza Hut uses hot air injected ovens to achieve even cooking. A convection oven would probably do better than a conventional oven. If you like to load your pizza down, then lower the oven temp a little and cook for a longer time. After you top your pan pizza, spray the outer edge of the dough again with spray release to help brown the crust.

Has anyone tried using an unglazed quarry tile as a pizza stone? I'm eager to try that, but I'm not sure about the pros and cons of buying cookware from the hardware store.

I haven't tried that. I can only think of two risks. It may not withstand rapid heating and cooling, or there may be something in the gaze that becomes caustic at certain temperatures. Might be worth a try.

Has anyone tried using an unglazed quarry tile as a pizza stone? I'm eager to try that, but I'm not sure about the pros and cons of buying cookware from the hardware store.

I use an $14 unglazed 18-in. square travertine tile that fits on the bottom of my oven almost perfectly. I only remove it when I utilize the self cleaning option (which is once in three years). The travertine tile cracked on the first heating, but still holds together (and is too heavy for me to want to move).

I don't usually bake directly on the stone because I find results are just as good if I use a piece of parchment paper cut to size. The parchment paper doesn't catch fire or burn if it's not sticking out too much and the results are as fine as any other pizza stone I've used.

I have been visiting your site for a while, and I really like the way you aproach things: maybe just because it's "Cooking for Engineers", and after years of work as engineer you get used to see things a certain way.

As regards pizza making, there is basically no official recipe for the dough: every region in italy and every pizza shop has his own tricks and secrets, so that you can find a variety of pizza stiles.

To my experience, the best results are achieved with natural yeast, or with very little yeast quantities (2g per 1000g of flour...) and very long proofing times: there are some reactions going on -it's basically a fermentation- that take time to develop. But dry yeast will do if you are on a hurry or you don't want to start your pizza making th day before!

As regards the ingredients, I prefer to use just plain water instead of milk (50%in weight of the flour), it makes your pizza more crispy (and you avoid unnecessary fat addiction), but it's a matter of taste.
The way I proceed is slightly different: I usally start to mix flour yeasty and sugar, add the olive oil and keep on mixing. At this point I start adding water slowly, and just before the whole mmixture clumps together I add the salt: this is just to have the yeast doing his work properly, as salt is reducing it's action; so whatever you do avoid to have yeast getting in touch with salt.

To spread the dough, do it directly in the pan: form a disk, put in the pan you have slightly oiled, and spread it with your hands, this will give you a softer result, and is much faster as well.

To have a crispy result try to use some malt instead of sugar, it will give a nice brown crust.

As regards cooking your pizza the refractory stone makes sense if you are making thin and crispy pizza (like what you get in a pizzeria in Italy), for a pan pizza a conventional oven is suitable. I do not like the effect of convection ovens in pizza making as you may get a burned surface and an uncooked pizza at the middle of the pan: I sitch it on if I need to dry out the topping (watery mozzarella chees for example).

That carmelized onion, anchovy & artichoke pizza sounds fabulous! You wouldn't even need cheese! Also, I wouldn't have to share it with anyone else in the house...
If you don't want to make your own dough, you can buy regular or whole wheat dough at Trader Joes, if it's in your area. But really, once you've made it a couple of times it is very easy and pretty quick. Has anyone tried making large batches and freezing the extra? Do you need to mix smaller batches, or can you double the recipe?